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Free WordPress Themes: The Ultimate Guide
There are so many free WordPress themes out there it can put your head in a tail spin. So in an effort to help you sift through the good and the – let's face it – crap, we've put together this ultimate guide to free WordPress themes.
This post is your one-stop, all-you-can-eat resource for information about free WordPress Themes.
There's an overwhelming number of free themes available – just search Google. It's easy enough to just download the first free theme that catches your eye. And why wouldn't you? They're free!
Why should you fork out your hard-earned cash for a premium theme when there are thousands, if not tens of thousands, available for free?
And you're right. Why should you pay for something you can get for nothing? Downloading a free theme instead of a premium theme seems like the obvious choice.
But like most things that are too good to be true, free themes come with a catch. You risk downloading malicious code, struggling to customize a poorly written theme or finding out the hard was that you're all alone with no support when something goes wrong. What might be free now, you'll pay for later in frustration, time and money.
Stick around, but in this very comprehensive look at free themes, I'll let you in on everything you need to know about free themes and where you can find safe and reliable options.
In this post we'll cover:
- What is a Free WordPress Theme?
- Advantages of Free WordPress Themes
- Disadvantages of Free WordPress Themes
- Free WordPress Themes Versus Premium WordPress Themes
- Should I Use a Free Theme or a Premium Theme
- Where You Can Find Reliable and Free WordPress Themes
- Searching for Free WordPress Themes on Google
- How to Check Your WordPress Themes for Potentially Malicious Code
- Tips for Choosing Your Ideal Free WordPress Theme
What is a Free WordPress Theme?
A free theme is, well, free.
Some developers create free themes to build their portfolio or just for fun. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of themes shops out there and some, like WooThemes and Graph Paper Press, also create free themes, often to attract users to their site in the hope they'll empty their wallets for premium content.
If you've searched Google for free themes, you've no doubt stumbled across WordPress.org and its Theme Repository, the largest collection of free WordPress themes available online.
WordPress software is licensed under the GPL and all themes uploaded to the Repository are also required to be 100 percent GPL-licensed or use a GPL-compatible license. This includes all PHP, HTML, CSS, images, fonts, icons and everything else.
What's the GPL?
The GNU General Public License, according to its preamble, is "intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software – to make sure the software is free for all its users."
When referring to free software, the GPL means freedom, not price. The GPL is designed to ensure you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service, if you wish), and that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new, free programs.
The GPL was the first copyleft license made available for general use.
Creative Commons
Creative Commons licenses are another type of public license, which is free of charge to the public. These licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators.
Some WordPress themes, which are not part of the Theme Repository, are licensed under Creative Commons rather than the GPL.
Free Themes Are Not All Created Equal
Back in 2009, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg sought to clarify licensing for free themes. The US-based Software Freedom Law Center gave the legal opinion that PHP in themes must be GPL, while artwork and CSS may be licensed under GPL, but it's not required.
When downloading any theme it's important to understand how it is licensed and what you're legally allowed to do with it.
Advantages of Free WordPress Themes
What's not to like about something that's absolutely free? There are many advantages to using a free theme:
Free Themes Are Free!
Free themes aren't going to burn a hole in your pocket. You can simply download the theme you want and starting using it.
Premium themes can be expensive and if you buy a theme and later decide you don't want it, or discover that it doesn't work well with plugins you really need, it can be difficult to get your money back.
Also, why hire a designer and developer to create a site for you when you can simply download one for free?
Community Support
While free themes often come without support, there are plenty of resources out there to help you get started with a free theme you've just downloaded or with any advanced customizations you may want to make. The WordPress Support Forums are the first port of call. We've also got a rocking support team at WPMU DEV.
If you're like me, you quickly spot a theme you like, download and activate it and then decide it's totally wrong for you site. Rinse and repeat.
This can get pretty expensive if you're buying premium themes at $45 a pop. With free themes, since you don't have to pay for them you can download as many as you like without compromising your budget. You can experiment with as many themes as you like until you find the right one that suits your needs.
Disadvantages of Free WordPress
While there are many good reasons to download free themes, they do have their limitations and disadvantages.
Not Unique
There are a plethora of blogs out there (including ours) that regularly publish lists of the best free themes, so the best ones are quickly picked up and promoted.
The best free themes can be download hundreds, if not thousands, of times, ensuring your site is about as unique as a banana.
Poorly Coded
Many free themes are put together by amateurs who have poor coding skills, leaving your site open to security vulnerabilities if you decide to use the theme.
Poorly coded free themes are also less likely to be localization-ready if you want to translate your site into another language, or SEO-optimized to help your site load faster and perform well in search rankings.
Lack of Features
Free themes usually offer very basic features. The premium theme market is an incredibly competitive place – just look at Theme Forest. Themes need to offer responsive design and dozens of customizations to get ahead of competitors. Free themes more than not have a very limited number of features.
Lack of Support
Free themes often don't come with customer support, so if you run into a problem you're on your own.
Rarely Updated
WordPress is constantly being updated. In fact, the latest version of WordPress, 3.8, was released just two months after WordPress 3.7. It's important your themes are compatible with the latest version of WordPress. When you use a premium theme, the onus is on the developer to release timely updates. But when you're using a free theme, you could wait months for an upgrade or not even see one at all.
There are themes in the WordPress Theme Repository that haven't been updated in more than two years.
Malicious Code and Encrypted Footer Links
Free themes are notorious for being a conduit for malicious code, encrypted spammy links and link injections for malware or whatever else.
Since the Google Penguin update, Google has cracked down on sites that have spammy and encrypted links. Hell, we were even
Free Themes Versus Premium Themes
It's important to weigh up what you want to actually achieve with your site. Small personal blogs or portfolio sites may benefit from a free theme because it's a quick and inexpensive way to get a site up and running. Small businesses that require e-commerce, agencies and large companies would do better with a premium theme. Don't even think about using a free theme for a complex corporate site.
Premium themes offer many features that are worth paying for and free themes simply can't compete. If you do decide to use a free theme, it's important to acknowledge its limitations and accept them.
What is a premium theme?
Premium themes are themes which have been professionally designed and developed and include advanced features and functionality, such as sliders, e-commerce, styling options, and custom widgets, among other things.
Premium themes are usually sold at a fixed cost or as part of a membership. You're look at around $45 for a theme at Theme Forest or $99 for a standalone theme at WooThemes. When you buy a theme, it usually comes with support and regular updates for a fixed period of time.
When you hand over money for a premium theme, you can expect a higher standard and quality compared to free themes, as well as a greater selection of theme designs and functionality.
Unfortunately, there are nasty people out there who manipulate and distribute free WordPress themes containing dodgy links and malicious code. Unless you know what to look for in a theme's files, using these free themes can negatively affect your site's efficiency and search engine trust and rankings.
Premium themes can give you the peace of mind that a theme is clean and optimized to make your site perform at its best.
Should I Use a Free Theme or a Premium Theme?
When you're just starting out, it makes sense to download and experiment with free themes so you can get a sense of how WordPress works and how to makes customizations.
If you're a blogger, a free theme is ideal. Not only is it low cost, but it is unlikely you will need advanced features that comes with premium themes.
When your site starts to get more popular, it's probably time to start thinking about buying a premium theme
Free themes are best for:
- Bloggers
Premium themes offer features more suited to
- Popular blogs
- Small businesses
- Corporate sites
When making a decision about what kind of theme to use, it's also worth considering what kind of look and feel you want to project to your visitors. If you use a free theme with a footer link displaying the name of the site where you downloaded it from, it tells people you don't put much effort into your site.
Where You Can Find Reliable Free Themes
It's important to remember that malicious code isn't the defining characteristic of free themes. In fact, there are many quality free themes out there.
Rather, malicious code is a problem of unsafe sites offering those themes. This is why it's important to download free themes from reliable sources like the ones mentioned below.
WordPress Theme Repository
The Theme Repository really is the largest collection of free themes available online (where else would you find it? :)
At last count there were 2216 themes in the repository, which have been download 89,271,832 times. (Remember what I said about the uniqueness of free themes…?)
The Repository has a fantastic feature finder, while allows you to search for themes based on their tags. So if you're looking for a pink theme with a right sidebar, a fixed layout and a feature header for the holidays, you can search for and find just that.
As I mentioned above, all themes uploaded to the Repository are 100 per cent GPL and are throughly tested by the Theme Review Team, so themes should be free of malicious code.
120 Free WordPress Themes from Premium Theme Developers
Our very own Brenda Barron put together this amazing list of premium themes that are also 100 percent free.
Not only are these themes free, but you can trust that they have been created and released with clean code. Many theme shops don't provide support for free themes, so it's a good idea to check this out if you do decide to download a free premium theme.
Free Premium Themes
While theme shops really just want you to buy and download their premium themes, many also release free themes to entice new customers.
Here are just a few:
Themes Kingdom offers six free themes, including a charity theme. The themes features clean designs that come with support.
WooThemes offers a collection of 16 free themes, including e-commerce, blogging and business designs.
Thirteen free themes are available at Graph Paper Press, a theme shop aimed at photographers, artists and small businesses.
Wpshower offers seven free themes that come with features such as custom widgets and a jQuery-powered featured post carousel. The theme shop's site includes a forum where users can ask questions about free themes.
Themify offers three free themes, which come with features such as responsive layouts, sliders and child theme support.
Searching for Free WordPress Themes on Google
A few years ago, a simple Google search for "free wordpress themes" was very different to what it is today. Back in 2011, a search turned up a gaggle of dodgy, theme websites littered with themes containing malicious code and hidden, spammy links:
Times have certainly changed since then! Since Google's Penguin update, the search engine has cracked down on spammy links and link schemes. In 2014, a search for "free wordpress themes" brings up a very different set of search results:
I should also add that the top 10 results change daily, albeit slightly.
So what are all these sites? Let's go through each one and check their credibility.
WordPress Theme Repository
It makes sense the WordPress Theme Repository, the largest collection of free WordPress themes available, ranks highly. In fact, both first and second.
The repository is one of the safest places to find and download free themes. A volunteer Theme Review Team reviews and approves themes submitted for inclusion in the repository. Theme reviews are a way to control the quality of themes that are available in the repository. The team doesn't review designs, but it does look at the quality of code, ensures themes meet a strict set of guidelines and can handle test data.
WPExplorer offers a collection of free and commercial WordPress themes and plugins sourced from third-party sites, such as Theme Forest. The sites makes money from affiliate links.
According to the site's terms and conditions, many of the themes available for download on the site are not hosted on the WPExplorer domain, and those that are hosted on the same domain may include a footer link back to WPExplorer.
Importantly, the terms and conditions also specify "any free theme downloaded from WPExplorer.com is done at your own risk and the owner of WPExplorer.com will not be liable for any problems caused from such activity."
WPMU DEV Blog
The fourth search listing is the very blog you are reading right now! Back in 2011, we reviewed the top 10 search listings for "free wordpress themes" and found the majority offered themes containing malicious code. The subsequent post, Why You Should Never Search For Free WordPress Themes, was a huge eye opener for WordPress users who had never bothered to look into the code of the free themes they were downloading.
But 2011 was a lifetime ago in the online world so we're bringing things up-to-date in this post.
Design Razzi
Design Razzi calls itself a design magazine, but it's really just a collection of lists, i.e. 125+ Free Responsive WordPress Themes 2014, 150+ Best Free Photoshop Text Effects Tutorials, 5+ Best Responsive WordPress Video Themes. The site is crammed with ads.
The WordPress themes section offers lists of themes hosted off-site, such as 125+ Best WordPress Photography Themes and 75+ Best Personal Blogging WordPress Themes. There's no terms and conditions section. When you click on a theme you are taken to a third-party site where you can download or demo a theme.
My recommendation: download themes from Design Razzi at your own risk.
Smart Magazine WordPress Themes
Smart Magazine Themes offers a huge collection of free and premium themes. The site's themes are available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license – another type of license, similar to the GPL in its aims – which means anyone who downloads a theme can share it or adapt it, but they must give attribution to the theme's creator. This means that every theme must display a link in the footer to the Smart Magazine WordPress Themes site.
While all of the themes are free, you need to cough up some cash if you want to get rid of footer links or use any themes for client sites.
Web Designer Depot
The seventh entry is Web Designer Depot, a blog about web design and development. The link displayed in Google search is a round-up of themes, The Best Free WordPress Themes, December 2013. The themes listed are all hosted off-site. Many are available on the WordPress Theme Repository, while others are hosted on sites belonging to a theme's developer.
While the site has terms and conditions, there is nothing related to the free themes promoted on the site. Themes that are available on the repository are generally safe, but you may want to check the files of any free themes you download from other sites. I'll go into how to check free themes for malicious code later in this post.
Towfiq I.
Towfiq I. is a theme shop run by Bangladeshi developer Towfiq, offering free and premium themes. Obviously, Towfiq has been working hard on his SEO!
I downloaded a bunch of free themes from the site and scanned them for potentially malicious or unwanted code using the Theme Authenticity Checker plugin (I'll go into more detail about this plugin later in this post). I didn't find anything out of the ordinary, only links back to the Towfiq site. The fact this site ranks on the first page for this search term makes me wonder how he boosts his SEO?
Hongkiat is a popular design and blogging site that features articles and tutorials on Photoshop, HTML/CSS, WordPress, photography and design. The site's WordPress section features tips and tricks, much like the WPMU DEV Blog.
The link that appears in Google search is for a list post, 40+ Free Responsive WordPress Themes. A lot of sites, such as our blog, publishes these list posts, which are designed to spark inspiration and provide a handy look at what's out there.
The posts in this list are all hosted off-site on theme developer sites, so download at your own risk.
Torque Mag
Last but not least, Torque Mag comes in 10th in our Google search. Torque is a WordPress news site run by managed WordPress host WP Engine.
The link, Best Free WordPress Themes from 2013, offers a list of 25 free themes released during 2013. Like other list posts, the themes are all hosted off-site, so download at your own risk.
How to Check Your Theme for Potentially Malicious Code
It's a good idea to scan new themes of malicious code if you're not 100 per cent satisfied that the code is clean.
Luckily, there was a few great programs to help you out – and they're all free, no less.
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC)
TAC searches the sources files of every installed theme in your WordPress install for signs of malicious code.
It's simple to use – just install and activate the plugin. A new menu item will appear in your admin area – Appearance > TAC. If bad code is found, TAC will display the path to the theme file, the line number and a small snippet of the suspicious code.
Exploit Scanner
Exploit Scanner searches the files on your site, as well as the posts and comments tables of your database, for anything suspicious. It also examines your list of active plugins for unusual filenames.
This plugin is also easy to use – just install and activate it and go to Tools > Exploit Scanner to run a scan.
Sucuri Security – SiteCheck Malware Scanner
Sucuri scans your site for malware, spam, blacklisting and other security issues like. htaccess redirects and hidden eval code.
Like the plugins mentioned above, just install and activate the plugin. Sucuri Free will appear in the admin sidebar with various options for checking your site's security.
The plugin available in the WordPress Plugin Repository is free, though Securi also offers premium plans.
Tips for Choosing Your Ideal Free Theme
When choosing a free theme, only you know what your needs are so it helps to write them down keep them in mind when searching for a theme.
- What features do you need? Do you need a slider? A portfolio? A great free theme should meet your present and future needs.
- Is the theme easy to customize? Whether you're a coding king or a WordPress newb, it's important to keep in mind what customizations you may need to make to your site if the original design doesn't meet all your needs.
- Does your site fit a particular genre? If you are putting together a site for a specific purpose, such as a portfolio, photography or restaurant site, searching for themes available for your genre may help you save time.
- Is there support available for the theme? Free themes often come without support, though some theme developers are happy to help. It's a good idea to check on this before you download a theme.
- Is the theme regularly updated? As I mentioned above, there are themes in the WordPress Theme Repository that haven't been updated in more than two years.
- How old is the themes? Following on from my last point, check how old a theme is before you download it because it may not be compatible with the latest version of WordPress.
Where do you go for free and reliable WordPress Themes? Tell us in the comments below.
Image credits: WikiMedia Commons, Alan O'Rourke, jurvetson, Unsplash.


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Read here from jsonline. Not sure this is true. I read just 2 days ago that he was going to play – I believe Pouncey himself announced that. If he doesn't play, Pitt could be in serious trouble. I believe Big Ben and Legursky (the back-up center) had at least 2-3 poorly exchanged snaps against the Jets, including a fumble. But Raji would gobble up a guy like Legursky and the already questionable Pitt O-Line would become even more questionable.
In fact, their iffy O-Line could be a significant factor in this game. With Pouncey they are an OK, maybe average unit – but without him, they are a below average unit. So often, when the highlights show Roethlisberger dragging 5 defenders along with him while he's still managing to throw the ball, what isn't talked about is that Pitt's questionable offensive line consistently allows those guys to get after Roethlisberger. My guess is that if we send the right guys (like Bishop, Matthews, Raji, Jenkins, Walden) who are strong enough to drag Big Ben down – Pitt could have some real trouble with our D.

subset: commoncrawl


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Whenever a team is forced to play an O-Lineman on a goal-line play primarily because they are short healthy D-Linemen, it makes me think that team may need some more depth along the D-Line. Trevor Pryce, who not long ago a key cog in the Raven's always- strong D-Line, was just cut as the Ravens needed safety help (signed Ken Hamlin). I wonder if an old vet like this might be worth looking at to help us with our depth. He's played in the 3-4 for a while now, started 7 games for Balt last year and may still have a bit left in the tank.
I realize TT won't sign this guy, but it just seems like we're a bit thin along the D-Line.


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Akimasa Miyake earned his Ph.D in physics (in particular, quantum information) at the University of Tokyo in Japan. After the postdoctoral activity in the group of Prof. Hans Briegel at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, he started working at Perimeter Institute from the autumn of 2008 when the color of maple trees changed into the Canadian one.
He has worked in quantum computation, quantum information, and theory of entanglement in multipartite systems. His recent research interest focuses on quantum computation in terms of measurements to quantum entanglement. Not only is measurement-based quantum computation widely considered to be a promising route toward physical implementations of a quantum computer, but also its several features distinct conceptually from other quantum computational models make this model really fascinating. For instance, computational complexity reflects directly characteristics of entanglement in the resource state, and an entire space-time structure itself is simulated here. Thus, he expects this approach may lead to answer a fundamental question: ``what is the potential as well as limitations of computation admissible according to the basic laws and structures of nature?''
Especially, he is passionate to progress a recent discovery that the strongly-correlated ground state of such a Hamiltonian that appears in condensed matter physics could serve as a platform of measurement-based computation. That could evolve into quantum information processing through naturally-occurring many-body correlations. At the same time, it may relate the aforementioned question about intertwining physics and information to a modern prevailing perspective of emergence at the quantum many-body systems.


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Follow RFF News on your cell phone. Text follow rff to 40404 you will receive txt messages with RFF News
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The house is located inside a CBS Studio
Quote from: rosesrred on July 28, 2008, 11:11:09 AMThe house is located inside a CBS StudioIt can't be inside cause we can see the outside when they are outside.
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Just back from visiting my folks who are now just west of Charlotte in Matthews. As a sort of busman's holiday, we also stopped by the new Matthews Branch Library which is the bottom floor of the Matthews Town Hall. The impressive, but almost cornily designed, building has a cupola and large letters that read "Town Hall – Library." Now that's a good balance.
Matthews has built a little off road Main Street of shops, the old Train Station, a caboose and a grand circle with Town Hall – Library at the end of it. One side is bordered by a still very much in use railroad track. In the library, the Children's Section is on the track side with windows always unshaded so that the patrons in that section might wave at the trainsmen — and also because those patrons actually delight in the noise of a passing train. The more relaxed adult sections have stuffed chairs and a fireplace (not working while we were there despite the cold) set as far as possible from the tracks. The layout of the stacks and sections is such that you can have a readaloud in the Children's and still not be disturbed in the Adult areas.
While there is Internet access throughout the building, the special Internet room with support and monitoring is set apart from the books and other activity areas. I did not see any signs about wireless access. (Wireless access is available less than a block away at the Dilworth Coffee Company — which is not in Dilworth). There are not that many computers there that I saw but I think more than are listed at the Library's website which was put together before the place opened. Many 30 or so all told.
The train motif is carried off throughout the Children's Section with the Children's librarian desks set up like a large steam-powered locomotive (owner's of the Thomas trademark should not look too closely at this) and a very very large set of crossing lights hanging from the ceiling.
The stacks are wide and welcoming with several faceout displays at the end of various section rows. Most noted 'favorites' or 'staff favorites.' Note of interest: not many of the staff favorites were recent publications although the selections were quite eclectic.
Over all the library was warm and light, well-stocked (although I did not do any kind of content review), and an excellent example of a branch library.
In less happy, but related, news, Salinas California is closing its three public libraries. The Friends of the Salinas Public Library have kept up with the latest events and news stories for us.


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Solving A Taste and Odor Problem Step By Step (Article)
By Terry Keep of TrojanUV, Said Abou Abdallah of Arcadis, and Dr. Dean Reynolds, Department of Water Treatment City of Alliance, Ohio
The City of Alliance Ohio's water system has experienced annual Taste and Odor (T&O) events since the mid 1950's, when the first of two reservoirs, Deer Creek Reservoir, was placed into service. Nutrient contaminants, in particular phosphorous, in the watershed accumulate in the reservoirs causing algal blooms. The blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria, produce two aesthetically-offensive secondary metabolite compounds, 2-methyisoborneal (MIB) and trans-1,10-dimethyl-trans-9-decalol (Geosmin). Although both compounds occur in high concentrations in the reservoirs, frequent testing showed that MIB is the primary compound causing T&O problems in the city's drinking water. MIB can be detected by a few very sensitive persons as low as 7 ng/L (parts per trillion, ppt), but most people cannot detect MIB until it is greater than 20 ppt.
A particularly bad T&O event occurred in the winter of 2009 when the MIB level reached 340 ppt. The City was flooded with complaint calls. The Alliance Water Treatment Plant (WTP) fought the problem with the available treatment processes. The main process used for removing MIB was powder activated carbon (PAC). In addition, 24 in. of granulated activated carbon (GAC) capping the eight filter beds in the plant had shown some seasonal success at removing MIB. Concentrations for a typical 12-month period are presented for 2010 and 2011 in Figure 1. The highest MIB concentration during that time was 1100 ppt.
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A few weeks ago, farmers and ranchers who sent an RSVP to attend a local Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS) meeting in Sioux Falls, SD were uninvited to attend. Darci Adams, the HSUS state director for South Dakota, wrote to the interested parties, "Perhaps you've been misinformed, but this is not a public event. This is a private gathering for members of HSUS and supporters who want to get involved in our work to alleviate animal cruelty."
The meeting was canceled at the original location and relocated to ensure that agriculture's presence wasn't at the meeting. Luckily, agriculture had a second chance the very next day with a meeting held in Rapid City at Seattle's Best Cafe in the Hotel Alex Johnson. Matt Dybedahl, a senior animal science and ag business student at South Dakota State University (SDSU), happened to be in the area for his internship the day of the meeting.
After several attempts to RSVP for the event, Dybedahl was told by Adams that the meeting was full. Not easily run off, he showed up to the meeting anyway and was one of only 14 people at the meeting, hardly a large enough crowd to turn away interested college students. Politely, Dybedahl listened to the three HSUS staff members discuss their goals for the future. It wasn't until they brought up factory farming that he joined in the conversation.
"When they talked about factory farming, they basically described the conditions as horrific," explains Dybedahl, who says they talked about cage-free eggs, free-range pork and the terrible living conditions in feedlots. "They described farmers and ranchers as extremists and terrorists, and they promised to pass legislation, saying it's not if they can, it's when. Adams told the audience that the time might not be right for enactment in South Dakota, but the activists hope to weasel in new laws through different pieces of legislation, if they can't pass a ballot initiative. Those of us defending agriculture will definitely have to be watchful of those efforts in the future.
Of his attendance at the meeting, Dybedahl says, "they were definitely nervous I was there, as I'm sure they didn't know what I was going to say or do." He admits he was nervous, too. "They did let me make a few points but would quickly cut me off if I spoke too long. I didn't want to get in a big fight or cause a huge debate because I didn't want to leave a bad taste of agriculture with them.
"At the meeting, I was told that South Dakota has 19,000 HSUS members and that one in 28 people in the U.S. are also members of the HSUS," Dybedahl says. "The folks who are members will never change their minds about us; it's the other 95% we need to work with and share the real story of modern agriculture. We definitely need to pay attention to what HSUS is doing here in South Dakota, especially if they are going to try to sneak in legislation," Dybedahl notes. "Down the road, they will probably try to do something here in our state; we just have to be aware."


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Once again Jason kills a conversation.
You know I'm with you though.
LOL, I just know how hard it is to get into these places legally and all the work that goes into it, we've spent days researching a few places now that flat out denied out, and a few more that we are jumping through hoops to check out. Everytime one of these dingbats comes on and openly talks about illegal activity it screws all of us over, they are the reason most places won't open their doors to research.


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bedava bonus
To access your requisitions, test results, and HIPAA release.
To visit our lab locator page.
Food Allergies Related to Autism?
Sidney MacDonald Baker, MD
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Autism is growing at near epidemic rates in certain regions of America, in fact a recent study by the state Department of Developmental Services indicates the number of autism cases has nearly doubled in California in the last four years. Parents of autistic children are caught in a double bind...)...as their children's discomfort increases, recommended treatments show promise at first, but eventually disappoint, and the range of options offering hope, seems to dwindle. Anyone who has suffered with the wide spectrum of symptoms associated with autism understands how frustrating it can be....with all the remarkable advances in modern medicine, they must continue to struggle...The good news is that some fellow sufferers have found a path to relief, and while not a solution for every situation, the path that they followed is contained within this article.) Are you unknowingly feeding your child foods that cause or aggravate autistic symptoms? Read what one medical doctor has found over 30 years in practice... Children with autism are sensitive. Of the thousands of children I have known in thirty years as a doctor, the few hundred with problems in the spectrum related to autism stand out as the most distinctively sensitive of them all. Touching, tasting, hearing, smelling, and seeing involve an enterprise that is not only characterized by difficulties in processing and organization but is also involves a heightened, often painful, sensitivity. What does it mean to be sensitive? We all know what it feels like to have sunburned skin or a reaction to a certain sound of chalk on the black board and we can empathize with children who are involved in a more global sensitivity, but we scientists still do not understand what happens at the cellular or molecular level to change a person's reactivity from normal to sensitive. Even the words we use: "hypersensitive", "allergic", "intolerant", "hyper-reactive" do not have precise definitions. Many physicians, however, would quibble if we were to say that "autistic children are allergic" as opposed to "allergic children are sensitive". How Doctor Baker discovered the behavioral allergy connection... I was such a physician. Twenty five years ago when a child psychiatrist sent me Martin Zelson for evaluation of his seasonal behavioral deterioration. Martin was on the verge of being thrown out of his school program where he was in a group of other school aged children with severe developmental and behavioral problems, mostly in the autistic spectrum. Martin was aggressive, hyperactive, and destructive. I was skeptical, proficient in allergy evaluation, and was a former school boy New England wrestling champ. Evaluation and treatment of Martin's inhalant and food sensitivities resulted in a major improvement so that he was able to benefit more from his school program and participate in family activities that would have previously been impossible. His allergic responses were cognitive and behavioral in the absence of the kinds of symptoms we usually consider to be allergic (stuffiness, eczema, wheezing, itching).Three decades in practice revealed how common allergies are with children...As it turns out, I have learned in the past three decades that Martin was not an exception. Most children with his kinds of problems - and including children with all sorts of attention problems - have hypersensitivity to foods, and inhalants. Those of us physicians who have taken a close look not just at their histories and allergy test results but at their biochemistry and immune systems now recognized that they tend to be in a state of inappropriate immune activation. (Editor's note: You are welcome to complete our contact form if you feel this information pertains to you and your child. We'd like to assist you by providing more information on this important subject.)Autism is not caused by allergy, and yet...Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that "autism is caused by allergy". I am saying that children who have problems in the autistic spectrum (as well as children who have significant attention problems) are sensitive not just in the area of their senses, but also in their immune system's reaction to the environment. This association is a lot easier for me to understand if I look at the central nervous system (CNS) and immune systems from a functional, as opposed to an anatomical, point of view. Anatomically the CNS and immune systems are quite distinct and different. One is made up of stationary long branching permanent cells with a compact headquarters between ones ears. The other is made up of a disseminated population of short-lived mobile cells with no specific organ to call home. Pick up any textbook of anatomy, physiology, or pathology. The CNS and immune system chapters are widely separated as are the experts who wrote the chapters. From the way I see it, however, they are a functional unit. An important hidden link between the CNS and immune system...Look at it this way: The cells of both systems arise from the same origin in the neural crest of the embryo. Both systems contain the only cells of our bodies that exist as permanent, undividing cells from infancy to old age. (Such long-lived cells are a subset of the otherwise ephemeral cells, lymphocytes, of the immune system.) Both systems have the job of perceiving the environment. The CNS takes in the big world of our senses, our every day cognitive experience. The immune system takes in the microscopic or molecular world of that has to do with "sensing" the constant presence of friendly or unfriendly (such as cancer) cells, germs, food molecules, and toxins.The chemistry of the immune system perceiving its tiny environment is not very different from our nose smelling the bread baking in the oven. However we have a direct experience of the bread while our immune system only makes us aware of its activities when something seems to be quite wrong, and the message that something is wrong may be quite delayed or obscure. The memory of your fifth birthday party when your friend Jeffrey spilled purple juice all over your new sneakers is in your CNS. That same week, when the doctor gave you your shot against tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough, the enduring memory of the "taste" of those germs was evoked in your immune system where it remains today. The birthday and the immunization are stored differently in you body, but functionally they are come under the same heading: perception and memory.Another important link between the CNS and immune system...Perception and memory are the basis for "recognition". Recognition is a term we use interchangeably to describe the day to day activities of both our CNS and our immune systems. Finally, both of these two systems share the capacity for this mysterious process called sensitization, which is, in a way, an inconvenient or painful alteration of the memory and recognition process. Viewed from this perspective, it is not surprising that children who have problems with taking in and processing the world express that problem on both the cognitive and immune levels. They are really just different aspects of the same underlying mysterious disorder.We try to help our children organize and integrate their cognitive world by imposing certain simplified order. Such order may take the form of repetitive behavioral and linguistic exercises or efforts to modify responses (desensitize) to sensory input. On the immune level we try to impose a simplified order by avoidance of, or desensitization to, offending foods and inhalants. This applies whether the mechanism of the reaction to foods, for example, is "allergic" within the academic definition of the word or "intolerant" within a notion that covers a variety of mechanisms, including the mischief caused by certain peptides derived from gluten and casein. Helping a picky, hypersensitive child...So you have a picky kid. Your job is to help him or her learn better picking. If he or she chooses to limit his or her activities to monotonous behavior, you try to broaden his or her cognitive experience by picking and presenting other, more useful, kinds of stimuli. If he or she is sensitive to tastes, touch, smells, sights or sounds, you take steps to help him or her integrate and become less painfully sensitive to these stimuli. If your kid's immune system is picky, your job is to find the stimuli that are bothersome, and present ones that are not mischievous. How important is the food allergy link to children?...When you have lots of other things to think about, should you change the diet of a child who has decided to live on French fries, smooshed bagels, chocolate milk, pretzels, Twinkies and diet coke, rejecting all alternatives with an iron will? Yup! And when you get over the hump, you are likely to be rewarded with changes in sleep, behavior, attention and "sensitivity" that make the struggle worth it. There are several ways of checking for food allergy. Trial and error changes in diet are tedious but inexpensive. I have found IgG ELISA blood testing as done at Immuno Laboratories to be a reliable measure both in term of my experience with individuals as well as in research studies done to validate the test.Dr. Baker practices, writes, and does research in Connecticut. He is a graduate of Yale School of Medicine and former Director of the Gesell Institute of Human Development in New Haven.Special note to parents with autistic children...We recognize the specialized needs you and your child have and would like to work closely with you and your physician; or, when requested, we'll refer you to a physician who works with autism and food allergy testing. You are welcome to complete our contact form and indicate specifically how we may assist you.
4040 Florida St. Suite 101 Mandeville, LA 70448


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Monday, November 29, 2010
Posted by Jess at 12:33 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Jacob's 3rd Birthday
We have a tradition with Jacob that every year on his actual birthday, we go to a restaurant in Seattle called St. Clouds. Usually we sit outside in their lovely garden, but this year it was raining. We still had a great time, and loved spending time together as a family.
He couldn't decide between flavors, so they brought him choices!
Posted by Jess at 1:17 PM 0 comments
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Lucas at 8 Weeks
We got Lucas' photos done when he was 8 weeks old, we are in love with them and wanted to show all of you!
Posted by Jess at 11:54 AM 0 comments
Friday, July 16, 2010
Welcome to the World
Posted by Jess at 3:58 PM 1 comments
Saturday, May 1, 2010
I know... it's been a LONG time!
So, I've been horrible about posting blogs. I have sat down and tried a few times, but the way our home computers are configured, photos are on one computer and it's difficult to do any "work" on that computer (the computer screen is our 50" television and cordless keyboard and mouse) and the upstairs computer has no photos. I will try to post pictures of Jake SOON, so many fun things have been happening since Christmas time. He is growing up so quickly and becoming a little boy. But I will have some time on my hands over the next few weeks because I will be on strict bed rest ... here is what is going on:
At 20 weeks I was diagnosed with Full Placenta Previa, which means the placenta is completely covering my cervix which makes it impossible to deliver naturally. There is a potential of bleeding and baby would have to be delivered early because the doctor does not want me to dilate (baby's head would be pushing down on the placenta and cause bleeding). I dilated 4 weeks early with Jake (although he was a week late ... but checked into the hospital at 4.5 cm). So, since 20 weeks I have been careful not to lift Jacob, my mom hired maids to come in and clean my bathrooms and vacuum my stairs. Nate has been going grocery shopping with me, helping me with carrying laundry, etc.
Yesterday, I was at my 26 week checkup and was giving a sample for the doctor and noticed a small amount of blood. I told the nurse and she told me to wait and she would come get me soon. But while in the waiting room, it continued to worsen. They asked me for another sample, but when I used the restroom, there was just too much blood and I yelled for help (more to the story, but I won't gross you out). They ended up calling an ambulance and I was transported to our hospital to hopefully get the bleeding under control.
Unfortunately, Nathan was at a work retreat at Lake Chelan for the night, so I called him and he made his way back home (6 hour drive due to construction and traffic). But good friends were able to take Jake to their home for the evening so my mom could meet me at the hospital. The bleeding did stop after a few hours and baby was monitored well with heartbeat and ultrasounds. Ultrasound concluded I still have FULL Placenta Previa and there is a small tear in the placenta which caused the massive amount of bleeding.
Good News: Baby is FINE
Bad News: The bleeding will most likely happen again and when it does, baby WILL HAVE to be delivered via c-section as soon as possible.
So, I am in the hospital until Wednesday (as long as there is no bleeding or spotting or contractions). I will be meeting with a neighboring hospital's surgeon and NeoNatal Specialist in the upcoming days to get aquainted with them and they will discuss proceedures if it becomes necessary. The hospital I am currently in (where I delivered Jacob) is not equipped for babies under 34 weeks. I have been receiving steriod shots to helps develop baby boy's lungs if he needs to come out early.
Here are the scenarios:
1. If I start to bleed again, I will be rushed over to another hospital for emergency c-section.
2. No bleeding or contractions and on Wednesday, I get released to go home but on STICT bed rest. Only in bed or bathroom for me. I have a fantastic mom's group that is rallying around me and will be doing shifts with Jake, not to mention my fabulous mom, supportive husband, and friends & family from Oregon.
3. If I start to bleed from home, 911 will be called and I will go in for c-section. I am not allowed to be alone at home due to the potential of too much blood loss.
4. No bleeding AT ALL throughout the rest of my pregnancy and I get to go ALMOST to full term. I will have a c-section at 36 weeks regardless. So, we will have a early baby either way.
But all is well, I am feeling good and being monitored frequently. Jake has been coming to visit me a lot and is handling mama being in bed very well. I will keep you all updated as well as get caught up on a few pictures of Jake and our adventures... like his new BIG BOY BED!! He loves it and is sleeping fantastic in it ... I was worried for nothing! :)
Thank you all for your support. All your messages, phone calls, texts, visits and flowers have been so appreciated.
With all our love,
The Connaway Family
PS. Still looking for a name for this new little bundle of joy. HELP PLEASE! Send me emails or leave comments if you have any suggestions.
So far our list consists of (and they aren't ones we are FOR SURE about)
1. Lucas Charles Connaway (Luke)
2. Colin Christopher Connaway
3. Ethan Charles Connaway
Posted by Jess at 6:03 PM 1 comments
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Merry Christmas!
Jacob opening his last day of the Advent Calendar…. he was sad to see it go, getting a chocolate everyday for a month isn't too bad!
On Christmas Eve with daddy and grandma
Leaving Santa cookies & milk and carrots for the reindeer.
Coming downstairs Christmas morning (slept in until 9am)!
Hugging "DOOF" which is all snowmen in 2 year old language.
I guess Jacob was on Santa's "nice" list because he got what he asked for, a foo-foo (choo-choo).
Opening our stockings from Santa at grandma's house
Giving mommy and daddy gifts that HE picked out for us.
Jacob had SO many presents for Christmas, he had a ton of fun opening all of them. He had to take off the bows, ribbon and name tag before he carefully opened each gift.
We set up his train set during his nap, he was so surprised when he came downstairs.
Jacob has become a PRO at this puzzle, he puts it together in about a minute (and does it 30 times a day). He is so proud everytime he finishes it, it's so adorable to watch his mind work.
Posted by Jess at 9:22 PM 2 comments


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Lettuce Eat Kale
Musings on food matters
Posts tagged as:
Veteran journalist Katrina Heron takes the reins at The Edible Schoolyard Project.
Thank you for stopping by Lettuce Eat Kale. Here you'll find my stories about food people, places, and matters. Please take a look around. Recent entries feature links to published works. Earlier posts include original reported pieces and personal essays. Click here to find out more about me, Sarah Henry. Visit my website to read more of my articles. Cheers, Sarah
© 2016 Sarah Henry
WordPress Admin


text: hold on a second while i mentally jump up and down from excitement at the discovery of this local style blog bluestockings, by emma durr & michelle gow (transplants from england and canada respectively). as far as i can see most of these photos were taken in stellenbosch in and around the university campus, which means i am doubly excited. nice little interviews, quality writing, beautiful photos and excellent local style is the word of the day at bluestockings


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Invitation to an open discussion on the political outcome document of the ICN2
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), in cooperation with IFAD, IFPRI, UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, WTO, WFP and the High Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis (HLTF), are jointly organizing the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), a high-level conference at FAO Headquarters, Rome, from 19 to 21 November 2014. More information is available at: www.fao.org/ICN2.
A Preparatory Technical Meeting was held in Rome on 13-15 November 2013 to feed into the ICN2, drawing upon a series of regional conferences and technical background documents as well as from the outcome of three online thematic discussions (Social protection to protect and promote nutrition, Nutrition-enhancing agriculture and food systems and The contribution of the private sector and civil society to improve nutrition).
Two documents are expected to come out of the ICN2 - a political outcome document and a framework of action for its implementation.
The zero draft of the political outcome document, prepared by the FAO and WHO Secretariats, will be further developed by a Joint Working Group (JWG) of regional representatives of FAO and WHO Members for adoption by the ICN2 in November.
We now invite you to provide your comments on the zero draft of the political outcome document available in the six UN languages through this public online consultation. In providing your inputs, please focus on the set of questions formulated below. A template for providing comments can also be accessed here.
This open consultation will give an opportunity for a broad range of stakeholders to contribute to the Conference and its impact.
The comments received will be compiled by the Joint ICN2 Secretariat to inform the work of the JWG.
We thank you in advance for your interest, support and efforts, and for sharing your knowledge and experiences with us.
We have a tight deadline, so we encourage you to send us your comments on the document as soon as possible.
We look forward to your contributions.
FAO/WHO Joint Secretariat
- Do you have any general comments on the draft political declaration and its vision (paragraphs 1-3 of the zero draft)?
- Do you have any comments on the background and analysis provided in the political declaration (paragraphs 4-20 of the zero draft)?
- Do you have any comments on the commitments proposed in the political declaration? In this connection, do you have any suggestions to contribute to a more technical elaboration to guide action and implementation on these commitments (paragraphs 21-23 of the zero draft)?
Commitment I: aligning our food systems (systems for food production, storage and distribution)to people's health needs;
Commitment II: making our food systems equitable, enabling all to access nutritious foods;
Commitment III: making our food systems provide safe and nutritious food in a sustainable and resilient way;
Commitment IV: ensuring that nutritious food is accessible, affordable and acceptable through the coherent implementation of public policies throughout food value chains;
Commitment V: establishing governments' leadership for shaping food systems;
Commitment VI: encouraging contributions from all actors in society;
Commitment VII: implementing a framework through which our progress with achieving the targets and implementing these commitments can be monitored, and through which we will be held accountable.
Commit to launch a Decade of Action on Nutrition guided by a Framework for Action and to report biennially on its implementation to FAO, WHO and ECOSOC.
Commit to integrate the objectives and directions of the Ten Year Framework for Action into the post-2015 global development efforts.


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- Home
- Admissions
As soon as you set foot on our campus you will know you've found the place you can call home.
- Academics
Our students are engaged in a wide range of academic pursuits that include degree programs in 160 undergraduate and graduate fields delivered by 6 different colleges.
Visit the Office of Academic Affairs & Research >>
- Campus Life
A-State offers unlimited possibilities for students to customize their experience while on campus.
Visit the Dean of Students >>
- Research
Research engages intellectual curiosity, satisfies the thirst for discovery, and provides an outlet for creativity.
- About A-State
Marking its first hundred years, Arkansas State University continues to expand in exciting ways.
Dr. Paul Sikkel
Associate Professor of Marine Biology
- BA -1985 Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution: University of California at San Diego
- MSc – 1990 Fisheries Science: Oregon State University
- Ph.D. – 1993 Zoology: Oregon State University
Courses Taught
- Biology of Animals (Undergraduate)
- Ichthyology (Undergraduate/Graduate)
- Aquatic Biology (Graduate)
- Parasitology (Undergraduate)
- Human Dimensions of Natural Resource Management (Undergraduate/team taught)
Research Interests
- Behavioral Ecology
- Ecology of Fishes
- Marine Ecology
- Parasite-Host Ecology
- My current research includes projects in the Caribbean, Philippines, Australia, and South Africa where my collaborators, graduate students, and I are investigating:
- Blood parasites of Caribbean Reef Fishes
- Habitat associations of parasitic gnathiid isopods
- Effects of cymothoid and gnathiid isopods on their fish hosts
- The role of ectoparasites in marine food webs
- The role of parasites in the success of invasive Indo-Pacific lionfish
Contact Information
Building: Lab Science East
Room: 412


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Happy new year yall!
With the new year comes new plans, new initiatives, new goals and new hopes. In the past I've put so much of myself into other people, groups, activities and put myself and my family last. I was raised a Christian woman and by Christian values of community service, always doing for others in need, and putting my needs behind those. As a mother you also put your children above yourself. This is not necessarily the right way to do things but the way I've done them.
I pride myself in being that trustworthy, reliable and always willing to help. I love being the one to lean on. I love helping people. I love seeing faces and watching moments knowing I got to help make that possible. That's truly unmeasurable. I love giving of myself. But there comes a time when that has to be put on hold.
After a horribly rough year where my life was in jeopardy with some insane internal health issues and many other bumps in the road my eyes and heart have changed.
This year I'm doing things differently. My family will come before anything or anyone else. I will not apologize for this nor will I feel guilty for it. My life as well as my marriage, my finances, my relationship with my children need my attention and I'm going to give priority to them.
So this year I've labeled the year of The Family, in hopes that with renewed focus I can teach my kids a few things, grow my marriage, continue to get well, meet some goals.
Please support me, my family and the challenges we are soon to face. Your love, appreciation and support are so needed and so helpful.


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How to Send a Letter to the Editor
E-mail: email@example.com (straight text only; no attachments)
Mail: The Open Forum, The Denver Post, 101 W. Colfax Ave., Suite 600, Denver, CO 80202
Letters guidelines: The Post welcomes letters up to 150 words on topics of general interest. Letters must include full name, home address and day and evening phone numbers. Letters may be edited for length, grammar and accuracy.
To reach the Denver Post editorial page by phone: 303-954-1331


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As the United Nations and Western aid agencies grapple with Burma's refusal to allow unfettered access to as many as 2.5 million cyclone victims, help is quietly arriving from Taiwan. Its lack of political stakes in Burma (Myanmar) and the vibrancy of its civil society have smoothed a path into Burma for its Buddhist charities.
"They trust us as a friendly group. They know we're going there to help, not to hurt. Friendship and trust is the only way," says Shen Xian-Long, secretary of International Headquarters Search and Rescue Taiwan (IHSRT), which joined the first Taiwanese aid mission to Burma.
With Burma refusing to allow in Western relief specialists and blocking non-Burmese staff from reaching the afflicted Irrawaddy Delta, any aid from Asian NGOs that gets through is much needed, say aid organizations in Burma.
A UN official said Wednesday that Burma had agreed to issue visas to 160 relief workers from neighboring India, Bangladesh, Thailand, and China – but not other countries, underscoring the regime's deep suspicion of Western powers that have been pushing hardest for humanitarian access.
Residents in Rangoon, Burma's largest city and former capital, have also been trying to organize their own deliveries along with Buddhist monks and entrepreneurs, amid frustration over the lackluster Burmese military response.
Such small-scale initiatives aren't a substitute for the specialist international staff and equipment that Burma needs desperately to mount a credible relief operation, says Tim Costello, the head of World Vision Australia. "They don't have the capacity, the helicopters, or the planes, and they don't have sufficient technical expertise," he says.
World Vision has more than 500 mostly local staff in Burma, but Mr. Costello says he and other foreigners have been ordered not to leave Rangoon.
Yet as Western relief workers waited anxiously in Rangoon and outside Burma, a team of Taiwanese aid workers arrived in Rangoon to deliver emergency food and discuss further assistance with Burmese authorities. Headed by a Burmese-born Taiwanese monk whose foundation runs charities in Burma, the group carried in nine tons of aid, among the first such deliveries. A second three-ton airlift is due Friday.
Mercy Malaysia, which was active in Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami, says it also sent relief workers and supplies into Burma within a week of the cyclone.
The Tzu Chi Foundation, the largest NGO in the Chinese-speaking world and a rising player in global disaster relief, has sent 15 volunteers from neighboring countries to Burma to work with more than 100 local staff to distribute aid, says Her Rey-Sheng, a spokesman for the group and a full-time volunteer.
Tzu Chi also got permission this week to set up a distribution center at a Buddhist temple in Rangoon and work with monks there. It's planning a fund-raising drive for reconstruction projects.
Taiwanese relief organizations face some of the same logistical and political constraints in Burma as their Western counterparts. Mr. Shen, of IHSRT, says a shattered road network and a lack of air and sea transport means that most Taiwanese food aid is handed over to the military for distribution. That runs the risk of diversion to military stocks, something Burma's junta has been accused of doing.
Still, Taiwanese aid workers say their low-key, hands-off approach to countries like military-ruled Burma, which has been lambasted by Western countries, pays off in times of crisis. Even Burma's close political ties to Beijing, a fierce diplomatic rival of Taiwan, didn't appear to intrude.
In fact, Tzu Chi has even been able to win the trust of the Chinese government. In 1991, after flooding along the Yangtze River. Chinese authorities were suspicious of offers of help from Taiwan, over which it claims sovereignty, while some Taiwanese attacked the group for aiding "the enemy."
Its volunteers eventually got permission to work there. This year, it became the first NGO with a foreign legal representative to be licensed in China.
Its bedrock belief, prescribed by Master Cheng Yen, the Buddhist nun who founded Tzu Chi in 1966, is that all charitable work should be grounded in gratitude to the needy to ensure selfless giving. "Every volunteer feels the same way. By going to help others, they feel blessed," says Mr. Her.
While Tzu Chi has 10 million members in more than 65 countries and annual donations of $300 million, homegrown Asian NGOs don't yet match the size of Western humanitarian organizations, and the idea of cross-border humanitarian work is relatively new.
"Chinese society for the last 5,000 years is about helping your family and village and clan members," says Mark O'Neill, a Hong Kong-based journalist who has written a book about Tzu Chi. "The idea that you should help Indonesians or Sri Lankans – people with whom you have no relationship and can give you no benefit – didn't exist."
But the 2004 tsunami and other Asian disasters have spurred their growth in fast developing countries such as Malaysia, Taiwan, and Singapore. Young people talk eagerly of volunteering outside their own community, and philanthropy is booming as affluence spreads across the region.


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Contact our team:
West Park Conference Centre is currently closed and we are not taking any new bookings for weddings, events or conferences. Please contact us to speak to a member of our team.
Contact our team:
West Park Conference Centre is currently closed and we are not taking any new bookings for weddings, events or conferences. Please contact us to speak to a member of our team.
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Our experienced events team at West Park understand that every event is different and we offer bespoke event packages for all celebrations of life. We're equipped for any party you'd like to host here and we offer superb catering, organisation and event management.
To add a 'WOW' to your event we can help you source suppliers for lighting, chair covers and centre pieces to add the additional elements that will make your event stand out.
We love nothing more than working with you during your event planning to make it unique and unforgettable. Your event is one-of-a-kind so you will be allocated your own event coordinator who will discuss all the finer details of your event with you. They will work closely with the operations team who will cater for and service your event ensuring that you are well looked after on the evening.
Hosting your party or event at West Park is as simple as it could be. We are easily accessible. We also have parking spaces for more than 100 cars and, of course, you're welcome to leave your vehicle here overnight.


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While Obama moves his fiscal chess pieces toward the inevitable cliff (or more like a boat ramp), and the sad and equally inevitable failed ideas of gun control stain newspapers and online news sites, I would like to take this moment to address America's most generous contributors of time, talent and treasure to charities - conservatives.
Christmas is over and so are most people's current round of charitable giving. Not because of tax purposes but because it's no longer on our minds. We donated to food banks, homeless shelters and Lottie Moon, rang Salvation Army bells and volunteered whenever we could. Now we rest, right? Nope.
Now is the time when we need to help simply because so many others are mentally tapped out. Do you think all those turkeys and food boxes you donated before Christmas are still waiting on shelves like decorative Santas waiting to be tossed into the attic until next year?
A couple of years ago, a local Rotary Club discussed upcoming project ideas. One suggestion made was to organize a food drive in November for Thanksgiving. Many heads nodded until one member noted that food banks regularly exceed their goals during Thanksgiving and Christmas. He asked, "How about having a food drive during the summer months when no one else is doing it?" The club agreed and the recipient agencies were ecstatic with the unexpected bounty for a growing population of clients during the expanding Great Recession. This drive grew into a year-round monthly collection benefiting a rotating list of greatly relieved agencies.
In little Delaware, with a total population of about 900,000 people and a reported unemployment rate of less than 7 percent, the Food Bank's hunger study found that 17,500 different people receive food assistance through their network each week (which does not cover every agency in the state that provides meals). That means more than 240,000 people got food from the Food Bank in just one year. Remember, the state's population is around 900,000. And even if the study is off by 4 percent or so, it's still a huge percentage.
The number is also evidence the media's ever-so-favorite U-3 unemployment number representing people who have filed for unemployment claims fails to illustrate the real number of people actually unemployed or so struggling with part-time jobs that they live on the edge of bankruptcy. It's what the Bureau of Labor Statistics called the U-6 number that reveals real national unemployment is over 14 percent. With that in mind, the Blackbaud Index of Charitable giving shows August, September and October are generally the worst months for charitable giving and January is right behind them. And why not?
Aren't we busy starting the new year, getting tax files in order and, unlike that slob down the street who leaves icicle lights up all year, putting away Christmas decorations? Veterans groups, Goodwill, religious charities and local missions sure could use your clothing that was replaced with new stuff at Christmas and a couple of bucks to go with it.
The gift of giving continues all year, as do the battles of ideas to make this country great again.
Rick Jensen is Delaware's Award-Winning Conservative Talk Show Host on 1150AM WDEL and 93.7FM HD3, Streaming live on WDEL.Com from 1pm – 4pm EST. Contact Rick at firstname.lastname@example.com, or follow him on Twitter@JensenVoiceover.
While Obama moves his fiscal chess pieces toward the inevitable cliff (or more like a boat ramp), and the sad and equally inevitable failed ideas of gun control stain newspapers and online news sites, I would like to take this moment to address America's most generous contributors of time, talent and treasure to charities - conservatives.


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FICTION WINNERS- House of fames: Everybody loves their WriterHouse
It may just take one to read a story, but it takes a community to inspire a winning entry. Just ask the winners of the Hook's eighth annual short story contest. The three winners all credited their participation in writing groups and the larger Charlottesville literary community as key components to their success.
"There are so many opportunities for writers here, to make connections and meet people who struggle the way you do," beamed third-place winner (and 2008's first place winner) Christy Strick.
Despite a busy schedule– promoting his latest novel, The Associate– third-year judge John Grisham took time to participate in Charlottesville's close-knit writing community and judge a diverse batch of approximately 80 entries. With the varying degrees of humor, wit, and intrigue, this year's winners prove that it may take a village to shape a writer.
Rachel Unkefer
Was first-place winner Rachel Unkefer taking cues from contest judge Grisham when she found inspiration for her entry, "Remote Control" in news headlines? The story, centered around a mother and on-going television coverage, was "timely and sad and instantly believable," according to Grisham.
"I started thinking about how people empathize with stories they see," Unkefer says.
The first-time winner gives most of the credit to her fellow writers for pushing her to enter the contest. Unkefer, 50, is on the board of the year-old organization, WriterHouse, which provides space, classes, and community to Charlottesville writers.
"I wouldn't have even submitted the story if I hadn't had my writing group critique it," says Unkefer. "The process of having people critique it, having to rewrite it, to go through drafts, made it the story it became."
Currently finishing up a novel and editing a second (short stories being a new venture for her), Unkefer plans to donate her winnings to WriterHouse. Focusing on writing and volunteering full-time after running a technical bookstore chain for most of her professional life, the winner encourages future contest entrants to embrace the literary community Charlottesville has to offer.
"Without the feedback, I would be a terrible, mediocre writer," says Unkefer. "It makes a huge difference in my own writing to have people give me good feedback."
David Ronka
If "what if" is a question we ask everyday, David Ronka can provide an answer. His second-place story, "Off Limits" stemmed from a childhood memory and blossomed into a completely different world.
"I won a three-legged race with a friend of mine when I was in the Cub Scouts," Ronka explains. "The story came out of a 'what if' scenario– something that had been knocking around in my head."
Ronka, who won this contest's grand prize back in 2005, admits that while the story's conclusion was far from his own reality, the concept of carrying around emotional relics is a universal experience. Judge Grisham agrees.
"Many of us carry the baggage of a cruel childhood deed inflicted on someone less fortunate," he says. "As this story illustrates, the memories haunt us forever."
A Monticello historical interpreter (he has yet to delve into historical fiction, oddly) and UVA creative writing professor, Ronka finds solace in the life of a writer.
After earning his MFA at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1997 and publishing essays occasionally throughout the years, the 65-year-old has pitched in at WriterHouse and finds the surrounding literary community an essential asset for Charlottesville.
"There are so many writers here, so many things going on all the time," he says. "It's a great scene."
Free advice from the professor? "Write and write and write, and send things out," Ronka says. "Writing is a blue-collar trade– you've got to get up in the morning and do it."
Christy Strick
If third-place winner Christy Strick had anything to say about Charlottesville's literary scene, it would be "Just Like Family" to her. The 53-year-old former Farmington Country Club catering director and first-place contest winner from 2008 took time off last year to focus on her writing and has since finished a draft of her first novel. As the president of WriterHouse, she, too, credits her writing group for inspiring her to re-enter the contest.
"I honestly hadn't planned on doing it again, but Rachel really encouraged me to do it," Strick says.
If her 2008 winning entry– a humorous take on breaking up– is any indication of her literary voice, this year's entry confirms it. "A very funny story about an unlikely encounter between two strangers who share family secrets," Grisham commented.
"My stories often start out as an image or sentence in my mind," Strick confides. "I never intentionally set out to put humor into it, but I think that's the way my brain works. Humor tells the truth better than straight, serious narrative."
Echoing the enthusiasm of her WriterHouse comrade, Strick encourages under-the-radar writers to join a community to strengthen their work.
"I really believe joining a writing group is a wonderful thing," she says. "It's an opportunity to see your work through different eyes."


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The adorable Bunny playhouse is a lovely first playhouse and with its compact size makes it ideal for gardens where space is at a premium. Little ones will have hours of fun playing 'house' in here.
This timber playhouse has been manufactured from smooth planed whitewood pine from sustainable forests. It is supplied flat packed for ease of handling and complete with felt, fixings, glazing and comprehensive instructions. The playhouse will have been given an industry standard base coat for protection in transit but to ensure years of enjoyment from your playhouse a further weatherproofing topcoat will need to be applied within six weeks of assembly.
For anyone wishing to simply admire their playhouse rather than building and painting it we offer a painting/weatherproofing and installation service which can be chosen from the drop down selection boxes above.
The Shire Playhouses are manufactured with 35 x 35mm framing. They come with 12mm thick tongue & groove cladding on the walls and floor, with an 11mm solid sheet OSB roof. A single door is supplied with a black iron pull handle and styrene windows are supplied as standard. You are also able to add additional opening windows and window boxes (if applicable) using the drop downs above.
Preservative/Painting Option
All playhouses in the Shire garden building range are supplied pre-treated inside and out with a quality, water-based, non-toxic, anti-fungicidal base coat. This ensures that your garden building is protected in transit and is ready to accept any preservative colour of your choice. The building shown above has been painted for photographic purposes only. You may decide to have your playhouse treated at the factory with a protective topcoat to ensure an even application. Simply select this in the drop down above.
Factory Painting
We are delighted to offer you a painted option on the whole range of Shire playhouses (Platforms, ballustrade and facias are not included in the painting option). We may not be able to match the image shown, please phone to discuss. This will be performed in the factory using Protek Royal shades as shown below. All you need to do is choose the additional painted option from the drop down menus above and select a colour from below. Once you've decided on your colour choice simply select your colour choice using the drop down above. Your chosen colour will be used for the main body of the playhouse and any trim will be painted Protek Snow.
DIY Assembly
Our playhouses are supplied in a flat-pack modular design allowing for easy transportation through your house or garage. They are designed for home assembly and come with comprehensive build instructions. No professional experience is necessary. Please click here to view the build instructions for this playhouse. Please note: These assembly instructions can change at any time without notice.
Professional Assembly
If you have any concerns about building your playhouse we are happy to offer a build service for all our Shire playhouses. So if your life is just a little too busy to spend time building a playhouse at the weekend or you just feel that you would prefer to leave it to the professionals; then why not book them in to do the job by selecting the option from the drop down menu above. All they require is clear access and a suitably prepared, firm, level site to be ready when the installers arrive. Please click here to view the Guide to Preparing a Base.
General Information
All information given has been supplied by the manufacturer, and is as accurate as possible. We recommend that you install the building on a solid, free-draining base (please see pdf above for a Guide to Preparing a Base), with at least 60cm free space all around for maintenance. You should treat all sections with a high quality, spirit-based preservative prior to assembly, and subsequently every year in accordance with the manufacturers instructions. Please ensure that regular general maintenance is carried out on all moving parts, and that the roofing felt is regularly inspected, and replaced if required.
Please note: Image shows the playhouse painted and with an optional window box. The playhouse no longer comes with the top wavy roof trim and will not be painted.
Additional Information
|4' x 4'
|1 Opening Window
|Eaves Height
|3'10 (116cm)
|Gable Ends
|4' (119cm)
|Ridge Height
|4'9 (145cm)
|1'8 wide (52cm)
|11mm OSB
Shire have been producing garden buildings since 1981 from their impressive factory near Cambridge in the UK. They have consistently expanded over the years, skills have been passed on within their factories and warehouses which now occupy some 20 acres. They have invested in the best equipment and have facilities that include a planing mill, self-contained joinery production, undercover timber store and large warehouses that can hold some 20,000 buildings in stock. Shire specialise in supplying good value for money playhouses, sheds and summerhouses.
All Shire buildings are produced to the highest standards using quality materials from sustainable sources. The timber is imported direct from Russia and Scandinavia it is slow grown and only the best grades are used. Shire pride themselves on good value for money products and have products suitable for every budget.
All the Shire wooden playhouses come with Perspex windows, safety hinges, roofing felt and an industry standard preservative base coat. There are British and European standards that apply to playhouses. Since July 2011, all toys sold in the European Union must comply with the European Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC, enacted in the UK as the Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011. The British Standard BS EN 71, which comes in many parts, explains how manufacturers should meet the requirements of the Directive, stating how toys should be manufactured and tested and the safety warnings they must carry.
Shire playhouses have been tested to the relevant standard since the 1980's.
All the Shire wooden playhouses come with Perspex windows, safety hinges, roofing felt and an industry standard preservative base coat.
With the Shire playhouse range you know you are getting a quality built "Little House" for your children.
FREE DELIVERY - Due to Covid-19 all Shire Playhouses are taking approx 4-5weeks for delivery. This item is despatched free of charge for delivery within 2-5 working days to most UK postcodes. If you have selected installation this can take up to 28 days. This playhouse is delivered flat-packed to kerbside. Please be aware that these lead times can be extended during the busier months of the year. Please contact us if the delivery date is crucial. When you receive your confirmation email from us, visit www.bookabldg.com to arrange the delivery of your item. If you are having installation you will be contacted by Shires directly to arrange a convenient date for delivery. Any optional extras are likely to increase these lead times. If you are having installation you must complete the terms and conditions regarding access and base requirements prior to Shire arranging a convenient installation date.
Delivery Surcharge Areas
Surcharge amounts are indicated on the below map. Once your postcode is entered at the point of order the correct surcharge amount will be added to your order.
Unfortunately we are not able to deliver to the Yellow Zone, or to any island or offshore areas.
Installation Surcharge Areas
Installation surcharge amounts are indicated on the below table. If you require installation in these areas, please check this item out and we will contact you to take the additional surcharge amount before processing your order.
We're sorry we can't ship directly to the rest of the world but we are happy to liaise with a UK freight forwarder to arrange delivery overseas. To do this simply enter your freight forwarder's details in the delivery address at checkout. If you have any queries please contact us.
If you are exporting this product, we can provide you with documentation to enable you to reclaim the VAT. Please contact us for more information.


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Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) has a reputation as the angry Titan of the Classical music period. But Bonn's most famous son, writer of the momentous Fifth Symphony, also composed the touching piano piece Für Elise. His Ode to Joy has been the European anthem since 1972.
Both Beethoven's father and grandfather were singers at the Elector of Cologne's court in Bonn, and it was that orchestra's members who gave Ludwig his musical education. He first performed as a pianist at the age of seven in Bonn. The court kapellmeister himself called the boy a 'second Mozart'.
In 1792 Beethoven left his home to study with Joseph Haydn in Vienna. The Austrian capital was where he composed all his famous works, for instance the nine symphonies, the five piano concertos, the 32 piano sonatas, the 16 string quartets and his opera Fidelio. Because Beethoven never held a post at a royal court, he was hailed as a civil society figurehead and visionary. His determined, often heroic music is still today interpreted as the expression of a revolutionary humanism. Not for nothing is his only opera about the liberation of a people's hero from a tyrant's control.
In Bonn, the city of his birth, Beethoven is everywhere. The Beethoven House, where he was born, is one of the city's main attractions. There's also the Beethoven statue on Münsterplatz, the 'Beethoven' concrete sculpture, the annual Beethoven Festival and the Beethoven Orchestra, all celebrating the great composer. And, no surprises, Bonn's concert hall is called the Beethoven Hall. Koblenz also has a Beethoven museum in the house where his mother was born.
두 가지 유용한 조합(브라우저 확대/축소):
확대: +
축소: +
다음 아이콘을 클릭하여 브라우저 공급자에서 기타 도움말을 받으십시오:


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Go Birding
Wolfe's Pond
Nesting** Spring Migration*** Fall Migration*** Winter**
(no star = birding is not very productive, * = somewhat productive, ** = productive, *** = very productive)
Note from Ed Johnson: As of February 2012, there is a tidal flow into the Wolfe's Pond basin. The berm that separated the pond from the bay broke in August 2011 as a result of extremely high waters from Hurricane Irene. The Pond still attracts birds, just a different mix of species. During 2011 fall migration there were quite a few waders and shorebirds using the mud flats/stream, and an immature bald eagle appeared for a couple of days. It's been pretty quiet during the winter, but more activity is expected with spring. Adena Long, the Staten Island Parks Commissioner, stated that they are committed to repairing the berm, it's a matter of when the funds will be secured. In short, Wolfe's Pond is different now due to Hurricane Irene effects, but still a worthwhile birding location.
During the early 1800s, this area was farmed by Joel Wolfe, hence the name. Now it is a public park owned by the City of New York/Parks and Recreation. The Department of Parks and Recreation built a playground (with restrooms) and is planning tennis courts, leaving natural much of the 336 acres which feature woodlands of maple, oaks, and beech; ponds; and a ¾-mile stretch of dunes and cobbled shoreline. Wolfe's Pond, a 16-acre freshwater body of water perched above the Staten Island water table, is only a short distance from oceanfront dunes. Legend has it that oystermen dammed up a tidal inlet to create a place to wash their catch. The pond is an ideal spot for night-herons, many duck species, and Belted Kingfisher. Wood Duck can be seen here in the spring and fall.
Belted Kingfisherby D. Speiser
From the parking lot, cross the lawn to Wolfe's Pond. Walk north along the pond's eastern edge (back toward Hylan Boulevard) checking it for waterfowl and wading birds. Scan the shrubs and trees for migratory songbirds. Following an old roadbed that goes into the woods, you will enter a ravine, which was created by the outflow from Acme Pond, a 5-acre body of water on the north side of Hylan Boulevard. Staying on the south side of Hylan Boulevard, take the trail to the left, which crosses a stream, and ascend the steep slope of the forested ravine to a ridge. From here you can search the treetops in the ravine for songbirds, as well as scan Raritan Bay for waterfowl. During fall migration and winter, all three species of merganser can be found on the pond, in addition to American Wigeon, Lesser Scaup and Redhead. Eurasian Wigeon is an occasional visitor.
American Widgeonby D. Speiser
Walk the beach area in winter to view loons, Common Goldeneye, Long-tailed Duck, and large rafts of Brant that can be seen in the bay. The latter stay until the end of May, when they depart for their northern breeding grounds. Scan through the gulls on the beach for Glaucous and Iceland Gulls. A scope is recommended.
Cross Hylan Boulevard to stroll through an impressive mature forest that started sprouting after the colonists abandoned farming on Staten Island. There is good birding both in the woodlands and at Acme Pond, but dirt bikers disturb the tranquility, cause erosion, and destroy avian habitat. Rusty Blackbird frequent Acme Pond from late autumn through winter, and Fox Sparrow are here in winter.
Fox Sparrowby D. Speiser
A small stream, where Common Snipe are seen, runs from Eylandt Street and can be accessed from Tottenville High School on Chisholm Street.
Wood Duck breed at Bunker Ponds Park , also owned by City of New York/Parks and Recreation. This park is located opposite Intermediate School 7 at the intersection of Huguenot Avenue and Hylan Boulevard. Make a side trip to Bunker Pond, if you have time.
When to Go
In spring, songbird migration is good from April 1 to June 1 and in fall, mid-August to early November. The best birding time of day is in the early morning. Later on when there are lots of people in the park, wary species are frightened off.
During the winter as well as September and October, birding for waterfowl is good anytime of day, particularly after a storm.
Personal Safety
Some parts of the park are isolated, so it is best to bird with others. Beware of dog ticks and poison ivy. Mosquitoes can also be a problem.
Getting There
Click here for Google map to Wolfe's Pond Park.
Special Note: As of late August, with Hurricane Irene, the fate of Wolfe's Pond is currently in question. The berm that separated the pond from the bay broke as a result of extremely high waters. Wolfe's Pond is currently Wolfe's "Muddy Creek".
Resource Persons for Wolfe's Pond Birding:
2012- Edward W. Johnson, Director of Science, Staten Island Museum
2001- Howard Fischer and Edward W. Johnson


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Was (Not Was?): Elvis Presley, Hitler's brain, Jimmy Hoffa, the author
You guys, I'm not dead. I know – like I'd ever get that lucky!
It's been around 8,888 years since my last post here on the Amoeblog (give or take 8,888 years), which begs the question: What have I been doing?
Well, maybe it doesn't beg the question. Maybe it just prompts you to politely inquire so I don't feel unwanted and insecure. I'll take it! Beggars can't be choosers.
Actually, that's not factual. Beggars can be choosers. In fact, it's in a beggar's best interest to consciously prioritize a great many things the rest of us FANTASTICALLY WEALTHY people take for granted.
For example: I'm often faced with a choice between whether I want to buy organic cilantro, versus non-organic cilantro. While I normally prefer organic produce, cilantro raised without chemical black magic is, in my experience, always filthy – and not "Oh, this potato needs to be rinsed first" dirty; organic cilantro requires a scrubbing akin to a Karen Silkwood workplace shower, which the culinary herb's delicate leaves do not endure well.
Conventional cilantro? Always sparkling. Like, so clean you could eat off it.
Fragrant and edible joy – or – what Satan's sneezes smell like
I only have this issue with cilantro (or, for my dear readers outside the USA, coriander). What up, organic farmers of cilantro (or, for my dear readers outside the USA, coriander)? Why so much solum on my coriandrum sativum?


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WASHINGTON DC - Sanctions on Iran will soon be substantially increased, U.S. President Donald Trump has tweeted.
The president says the proposed heightened penalties are in response to Iran enriching uranian for a long time and in secret.
According to reports from the IAEA the claim has no foundation, inspectors say Iran has been in full compliance until now.
"Iran has long been secretly "enriching," in total violation of the terrible 150 Billion Dollar deal made by John Kerry and the Obama Administration. Remember, that deal was to expire in a short number of years. Sanctions will soon be increased, substantially!" Trump tweeted on Wednesday.
Iran has now begun enriching uranium because it says the agreement between it and the major powers (the U.S., the UK, Russia, China, Germany, and the European Union) known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement, has been broken by the United States which has unilaterally re-imposed the original sanctions, and a raft of new ones. The United States, despite withdrawing from that agreement, is insisting Iran should hold up its part.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said it was a "sad irony" an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been called at the request of the White House, when the U.S. was responsible for having "ruined" the JCPOA.
What to do now is the dilemma the major powers face. Other nations are being persuaded by the United States to comply with the sanctions it has imposed, which puts Europe for example in the position of supporting sanctions, while expecting Iran to continue to comply with its obligations under the JCPOA.
Iran's economy has collapsed under the sanctions and it is the population of 80 million people that are paying the price.
On Monday, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran said the country had officially surpassed the 3.67% uranium enrichment limit set under the historic 2015 nuclear deal and was conisdering increasing the stockpile to 20% in the future.


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Who will take Ferrer to win it? I know Jacob Christner has picked Ferrer long ago. Who has the guts to say David will do it?
Views: 65
Replies to This Discussion
haha not even worth posting. If anyone watched the lights out tennis Nadal produced in the first set against Verdasco then it will be a walk over. The Eurosport commentator had the nerve to say Verdasco wasnt on his game ha he just got completely walloped. Nadal was freakishly good...
Of course, it's worth posting. I post, then you comment. Even if it's a bad post, you comment. lol
Come on Tim, this doesn't count as a discussion! We all know who's going to win Ferrer! Muhahaha jk
The bulldog that is not of University of Georgia pero es de Espana?
I'm declaring this a no contest haha less than 2 hours!
In favor of Nadal? I see it is very close Nadal 7-6, 1-2...
Ferrer broken...1-3!
Nadal broken back... 2-3!
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